majesty wishes it...."

"His majesty wishes...." she repeated.

Her legs trembled beneath her as though with electric thrills. Then she
let him take her and they danced.

Every one danced.

The empress had rushed up the stairs and along the galleries to the
bedroom-floor. She did not see that two ladies were following her; she
thrust back a door:

"Berengar!" she screamed.

The young prince's bedroom was lighted. The boy had half-risen, in his
little shirt, from his camp-bed. His valet and a chambermaid stood in
dismay in the middle of the room.

"Berengar!" the empress gasped out, rejoicing when she saw him unharmed.

She threw her arms around him, pressed him to her bosom.

"Oh, mamma, you're hurting me!" cried the boy, indignantly.

Her jewels had brought a drop of blood from his little bare chest. She
now embraced him more gently, with nervous sobs that choked in her
throat. A spray of diamond ostrich-feathers fell to the ground; the maid
picked them up with awkward fingers.

"Mamma, are they blowing up the palace?"

"No, Berengar, no, it's nothing...."

"Mamma, I want to go and look! I must see what's happening!"

"Berengar...."

The door had been left open; the emperor entered, calmly. The ladies
stood in the corridor, waiting for the empress....

"Papa, may I go with you and look?"

"No, Berengar, there's nothing to see. Go to sleep...."

Then he offered his arm to Elizabeth:

"Madam," he said, tranquilly.

She threw him an imploring glance. He continued to hold out his arm to
her. Then she kissed the boy once more, soothed him to sleep:

"Wait a moment," she stammered to Oscar.

She went to the glass; the maid, with her clumsy fingers, fastened the
jewelled spray to the edge of the low-cut bodice, spread out the square
train.

"I'm ready," the empress said to Oscar, in a lifeless voice.

She took his arm; the emperor just pressed her hand; and they nodded
once more to Berengar and went.

Arm-in-arm the imperial pair appeared for the second time at the ball.
The empress was pale but smiling. She was magnificent, delicate with
dainty majesty in the trailing white velvet, upon which, on the bodice
and over the front of the skirt, flickered sprays of diamond
ostrich-feathers, formed into fleurs-de-lys. An empress' crown of
brilliants crowned her small, round head.

It was two o'clock. Generally the sovereigns were accustomed to stay
till one o'clock at the court balls. The Queen of